I Was There in Ethiopia in ’84: Why the BANDAID Debate Matters 41 Years Later

Author Benny Dembitzer challenges the narrative around celebrity charity in explosive BBC Radio Ulster debate.

When Bob Geldof organised Band Aid in 1984, economist Benny Dembitzer was already on the ground in Ethiopia. By October 1985, he witnessed firsthand what happened when emergency aid met desperate need - and what the cameras didn't show.

Now, 41 years later, as Ed Sheeran refuses to participate in the Band Aid remix and the song faces renewed scrutiny, Dembitzer's voice offers something rare: the perspective of someone who both was there during the famine and understands the economic systems that created it.

In a heated debate on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback, Dembitzer didn't mince words about what's happened to humanitarian aid since 1984.

"We have a huge aid industry now," he argued, pointing out that organisations like World Vision - with a turnover of over 1.59 billion dollars and a CEO paid over $600,000 annually - have transformed from small grassroots relief efforts into a huge corporate entities.

But here's where Dembitzer's argument got interesting: He defended Band Aid's original purpose.

"Bob Geldof was raising funds for a desperate situation with millions of people short of food," he said. "I was up in the highlands of Ethiopia, and I saw people who were coming to places where food was being distributed... they would walk back to their villages with a bag of flour on their backs. By the time they got back, perhaps after 8-10 days later, everyone in the village would have died of starvation.

The real problem? The debate is being "deliberately confused," mixing emergency famine relief with long-term development - two entirely different challenges requiring different solutions.

The Debt Trap Nobody Talks About

Dembitzer dropped a bombshell statistic during the debate: 20 countries in sub-Saharan Africa pay more in debt repayment to international institutions every year than they spend on health and education for their own people combined.

This is the heart of his new book, THE GLOBAL FAMINE GAME - structural economic systems perpetuate poverty while celebrity charity offers feel-good moments that change nothing fundamental.

"If you do not have domestic capital to develop your schools and hospitals and roads, you have to borrow," he explained. "We have a global trading system that impedes poor countries' development."

From Ethiopia to Global Partnership

Dembitzer's journey from the Ethiopian highlands led him to found GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP, launched by Bob Geldof and Glenys Kinnock (wife of the then Leader of the Opposition) in 1987. For 21 years, he brought together each years hundreds of NGOs working worldwide, creating dialogue that went beyond the white saviour narrative that now haunts Band Aid.

Why This Matters Now

The Band Aid debate isn't about whether we should help people in crisis - of course we should. It's about whether our current systems actually enable development or just make donors feel better.

As one caller to the show said: "What Geldof] did was saintly. It was done from the heart." But good intentions don't solve systemic problems.

THE GLOBAL FAMINE GAME challenges readers to look beyond the charity industrial complex and understand the economic structures that keep countries trapped in poverty - and what actually needs to change.

Read more: https://bit.ly/TheGlobalFamineGame